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There was a strong sense of religious duty that kept me involved for 12 years in the pseudo-Christian cult, The Way International Rock of Ages 1978 Bob M. was walking the grounds recruiting attendees to go W.O.W. He asked me “Have you thought about going W.O.W.?” I replied, “I’ve already been W.O.W. a couple of years ago – and I’m married now and have a cat.” Bob snapped back “You know you can go W.O.W. again – with your experience you might even be a W.O.W. coordinator this time.” When I talked to my wife about going W.O.W. again (FYI she was in my W.O.W. family btw, got married after our year was up) she looked at me like I was nuts – and thank God, she talked me down. And it’s not like we had a spectacular year – but we stuck it out – being faithful to a commitment - and that's a big deal in TWI. Further down the road we decided to go in the 11th way corps program. But my wife got pregnant and so we put that off for a few years – finally going into the 11th Family Corps. FYI - we had to leave our cat with her dad - cats are not considered corps material. ~ ~ ~ ~ It was not like I was getting so much out of PFAL, or any of the other classes, TWI-doctrine in general, or any of their programs. Most of that was bait-and-switch stuff anyway – and some biblical-sounding fluff thrown in for good measure. The beneficial claims and hype held so much promise – but it was all relative to my believing. ~ ~ ~ ~ Probably the biggest factor that kept me involved in a pseudo-Christian cult for 12 years was a sense of religious duty. A motivating awareness of responsibility. I felt I owed something to God and the ministry that taught me “The Word”. Even before I took PFAL I began to develop a serious concern for getting back to authentic Christianity. The girl that got me signed up for the class shared from the TWI-authorized book one of wierwille’s significant supernatural experiences. On page 178 of “The Way Living in Love” she read this to me: “I was praying. And I told Father outright that He could have the whole thing, unless there were real genuine answers that I wouldn't ever have to back up on. And that's when He spoke to me audibly, just like I'm talking to you now. He said He would teach me the Word as it had not been known since the first century if I would teach it to others. Well, I nearly flew off my chair. I couldn't believe that God would talk to me.” The subtle implication of wierwille’s claim shifts the Bible’s mandates away from the text-in-context and onto wierwille’s assumed authority. Considering wierwille’s claim that God would teach him “the Word” as it had not been known since the first century – it is worth noting that Christians back in that apostolic age had no Bible – the New Testament had not been written and the Septuagint was not circulated. But that never occurred to me back then. There’s a lot of factors in play to keep people trapped in a pseudo-Christian cult – and they vary depending on one’s makeup, needs and goals: love-bombing, intimidation, isolation, fear of punishment from God, fulfilling the need to belong, etc. A sense of religious duty is a real sneaky one though. I brought it on myself – I had a strong drive to follow the direction of wierwille and LCM because I felt it was what God wanted me to do. Even if some stuff didn’t make sense to me or was inconvenient – I figured that’s what faith was all about. ~ ~ ~ ~ See also: Why People Stay Trapped in Cults: Survey | Cult Escape (cult-escape.com) 10 Psychological Reasons Why People Join Cults - Listverse 5 reasons why "normal" people join cults - and why they stay - The Tempest Why Did NXIVM Members Stay? The Psychology Of Cults (refinery29.com) Why do people stay in cults after they have joined? - Quora